Alice's and My Wonderland
by apricat
Summary: Rin and Len are completely different. One is an orphan turned noble, and the other is a peasant. One day, they fall in love, but an accident throws them both into Wonderland, separating them. What must Len do to find Rin again? Based on the song: Boku to Arisu no Wonderland
1. Chapter 1

Len sat on a barrel, eating his lunch, and watched, resigned, as a white hair ribbon bobbed brightly among the sober, dusty caps of the villagers. Rin was wrapped in an old, brown cloak that looked like its past life had been a other townspeople were staring, annoyed, at her as she chattered happily to a flustered baker. She seemed oblivious to how strange she looked. Her clean white skin and professionally cut hair would have made her unusual anyway, but that dirty old rag she was wearing...did she think ordinary people actually dressed like that? It didn't make a good disguise, either. Len could see the glowing white fabric of an expensive dress through the cloak's ragged tears and holes.

Rin really shouldn't have been there. Everyone, including Len, knew who she was. When the blond girl was orphaned at the age of three, the lord of the town had taken her in as part of a project. A childless man, he was raising several orphans, all girls, as nobles, in the hope that they would find a place in Society and reward the town.

Rin was supposed to be in the lord's mansion, learning etiquette and embroidery and whatever else rich girls were supposed to learn. She was definitely not supposed to be running down to the market and fraternizing with commoners.

Len stood, picking up the package next to him. Lunch was over. His attention was drawn back to Rin, who had just sighted a pair of guards. She waved to the baker and bounced away, trying to jam her tattered hood over her ribbon. Somehow, she managed not to catch the attention of the guards, who were now asking the baker something. The big, flour-covered man let out an irritated sigh and pointed in the direction Rin had gone.

Len adjusted the box under his arm and approached the baker's stall

"Here's your delivery from the miller."

The baker thanked Len and took the package.

"That girl came down here again," he grumbled.

"I saw," Len answered sympathetically. Complaining about "that girl" was a favorite pastime of the baker. Rin liked to visit the village every week or so, and with every visit, the town lord had to send guards to come fetch her. The townspeople were worried that the man might eventually run out of patience and take out his irritation on the town.

Len was especially worried about that possibility. He himself was an orphan, living in his grandmother's old cottage on the outskirts of town. As such, he was an outsider. He made money by running errands, growing a few vegetables, and doing odd jobs. If the townspeople were punished, it would be even harder on himself.

"I just remembered something you might find interesting," the baker said suddenly, interrupting Len's thoughts. "You know how my friend works at the castle? He broke his leg last week."

Len nodded, not sure where the baker was trying to say.

"Well, since I know you're always looking for a little money, I told him that you could fill in for him tomorrow," the baker continued with a magnanimous air. "It's only for a day. One of the lord's little princesses is getting married, so they need someone to arrange the flowers and whatnot. My friend says he'll pay you if you go in his place."

"Really? Wow, thanks!" Len knew a smile was growing on his face. The baker was one of the few who didn't treat Len as an oddity, and often looked out for opportunities for him to make a little silver. He was infinitely grateful. "I'll do it."

The baker looked uneasy, for some reason. "I thought you'd say that."

"Why shouldn't I?" Len was puzzled. A job at the castle, even if only for a day, was sure to be a great opportunity. Once, when another boy had gone there for some work, he had returned with a big basket full of food, which he said were only the scraps left behind by the noble's household.

"They say the castle's cursed," the baker answered ominously, waving his hands in what he clearly thought was a properly dramatic way. Len was surprised, and amused. Of all the things he had expected the baker to say, this was not one of them.

Seeing Len's skeptical expression, the baker indignantly tried to assert his story's truthfulness. "It's not a lie!" he insisted. "My friend says that no matter how many pet rabbits he gets the girls, they always vanish within a week!"

Len couldn't prevent himself from chuckling. Honestly? Rabbits? He at least expected some dark tale about a ghost or a monster. "Don't worry," he patted the baker's shoulder. "I'm not a rabbit. Anyway, I'll only be there for a day, not a week." He tried to stop laughing. "Tell your friend I'll be there tomorrow."


	2. Chapter 2

Len had been completely fine as he walked up the hill, but as he hesitated in front of the wrought-iron gate, he felt his stomach turning over. He sucked in his breath to call for someone, but let it out again. Was it really all right to just show up like this? He didn't have any training or anything. What if he did something wrong and ruined the wedding? He actually hadn't asked exactly what he was supposed to do. With every passing second he was closer to just turning around and leaving.

He was saved by the arrival of a servant woman. She set her basket of laundry on the ground and approached him, hand on hip.

"Who're you?" the servant asked, narrowing her eyes at Len suspiciously. "If you're selling something, I'll have a guard come and run you off."

"I'm not a peddler," Len answered. He was grateful that his voice didn't waver. "I'm here to fill in for one of the servants. His name is Leon?" At least, that was what the baker had said his name was.

The woman raised her eyebrows disdainfully. "Leon, huh? And why he'd ask a pipsqueak like you to help is beyond me. You sure you're in the right place, boy?"

Len put his hands behind his back so the woman wouldn't notice them twitching. Yes, he was a little small for his age, but it still annoyed him when people thought he was younger. "I'm fourteen, and nobody else is coming. If there's a missing servant at the wedding, I'm sure you will take the blame." He gulped, hoping the woman wouldn't notice.

"Oh, this one's all assertive, huh? Village boys are putting on airs lately, it seems." The woman grudgingly swung open the gate. "I'll take you to the head of the servants. Don't dawdle, I still have to hang these up to dry." She shut the gate behind Len, picked up the laundry basket, and turned toward the castle door. Len followed her silently. As she pushed open the door, Len could see the hall inside seemed to be lit with gold, and the furniture had the well-made, decorative look that meant money.

Inside the castle, beautifully woven tapestries covered the walls, and soft carpets lay on the floors. Stained glass windows filtered the sunlight and let golden beams shine down on everything. Len had never been in a place this amazing before. He tipped his head back to stare at the elaborate painting on the ceiling.

"Watch out, boy," the servant woman said sharply, just as Len walked into a doorframe. The woman snickered. "Head in the clouds, huh? Bet you've never been anywhere this fancy before."

Len rubbed his aching shoulder. "No, I haven't. It's beautiful." He wanted to swear, or say a witty comeback to the woman, or just do anything to cut through her smugness. She was only a servant, after all. But he couldn't, so he only smiled vaguely. Where was that strength that had let him talk back to the woman at the gate?

"Hey, Miss Lola!" the servant woman yelled. The doorway was the entrance to a large room filled with harried servants bustling about. One lady ended her conversation with a thin man and approached Len and his guide. She had dark hair, which surprised Len. Dark hair was rare in this country, although he'd heard that the lord's oldest girl was dark haired as well.

"Dina, please don't yell," Lola said wearily, rubbing her forehead. "What is it? Weren't you hanging up the laundry?" She noticed Len and raised an eyebrow. "Who's this?"

"I-" Len began.

"This little squirt says he's the replacement for Leon," Dina interrupted Len bluntly, balancing the laundry basket on her hip. "Seeing how you're the boss and all, I'll leave him to you and get on with my work." She curtsied as well as she could and strolled away. Lola rolled her eyes.

"That Dina. Really, if it was another household, she'd be out on the streets." Lola shook her head, smiling. "So, boy, what's your name and how did you find out about this job?"

Lola seemed friendly. Len relaxed a little. "My name is Len Kagamine. I know a baker who told me about Leon's accident. He said I would be able to work as his replacement." He paused. "I'm fourteen years old." He didn't want Lola to think he was a child, as Dina had.

Lola nodded, a pensive expression taking over her face. "Did he tell you what your duties would be?"

Len shook his head. He didn't know at all. "But I'm pretty strong, and I have a lot of experience in many different types of work." He did do a wide variety of odd jobs in the village, so he knew many skills. He only hoped that Leon's job didn't require any training or elegance. Most of what Len knew involved carrying things, chopping things up or washing things.

Lola rubbed her temples. "Okay, okay. Let me see." She thought for a moment. "Len, I'm only letting you work because the wedding is keeping everyone busy and we don't have time to hire anyone else. It's a good thing Leon wasn't anyone important, or there would've been trouble. I'll put you on as a gardener's helper for now. Are you able to do that?" Len answered affirmatively. He had done plenty of garden work down in the village.

Lola hurried with small, rapid steps to a stained wooden table in a corner, nearly hidden by some kind of frilly potted plant. The table was heaped with a mountain of brown and white cloth. As Len joined Lola, he realized that they were clothes.

Lola picked up a vest and a shirt and held it up against Len. "It's a bit too large, I guess. Maybe a medium size?" She dove back into the mountain of clothes, emerging with a slightly smaller set. She measured it against Len and proclaimed that it was the best she could find, and he would just have to deal with it. Len, slightly dazed from Lola's frenzied, rushed atmosphere, was directed to the nearest bathroom to change.

When Len returned from the bathroom, he was swept up in a whirl of dark hair and skirts as Lola directed him to the garden, slapped a pair of brown gloves and a bucket into his hands, and pushed him out the door.

"The girl getting married tonight is named Mayu, and she's a bit of a perfectionist. She wants cream colored roses, and only cream colored roses from our garden, to decorate the place. My idiot brother was supposed to pick the roses, but he had the nerve to get his leg broken, so you'll have to get them." Lola began to leave, then spun back to Len. "Oh, and one more thing. If you meet any of the three girls outside, do whatever they ask. Don't cause any trouble on this day of all days." She marched off to go shout at an unfortunate servant who had dropped his plate of sandwiches on the floor, scattering lettuce and triangle-cut bread everywhere. Len turned slowly and started in the direction Lola had specified, pulling on his gloves.

In a corner of the garden were five enormous green bushes, all bursting with fat, cream colored roses. Len set down his bucket in the grass, knelt down, and began snipping off flowers, using the shears which he had found in the bucket. There was no sound except for the chirping of birds and insects, and the constant snipping of the shears.

The sun bathed the garden in a heavy, sleepy heat that pressed down on Len's back. By now his bucket was half full. He continued on, sweating, focused only on the roses and on the dull buzz of the insects and the birds. There weren't any other servants around. They were all in other places: setting the banquet table, cleaning the house, decorating the castle. Len was utterly alone.

"...Hey. Hey. Can you hear me?" Someone lightly tapped Len's shoulder. He jerked and whipped around violently. "I have been calling you for a while now, you know."

In front of Len was a pale girl with short blonde hair tucked under a white sun hat. The dress she was wearing was immaculately clean, and so blindingly white in the noon sun that it left spots in Len's vision for a second. This was obviously no servant girl.

As Len blinked to clear his vision, he saw that Rin- of course it was Rin- had a huge, completely unladylike grin on her face.

"I recognize you! You are that boy from the village! What are you doing here? I saw you just yesterday, eating a sandwich on a barrel!" Rin's blue eyes were wide with the excitement of a child who has just discovered a rare treasure. "What has happened to Leon? He is blond like you, but taller." She waved her hand above her head, creating the impression that Leon must be fifty feet tall.

"Um," Len felt as if his voice had suddenly swelled up and stuck itself in his throat. "Leon...broke...his leg. I'm his replacement. Miss," he added as an afterthought. He probably had to call Rin something, right?

Rin laughed loudly and indelicately. "You do not have to call me Miss! Even if I am here like this, I was only born an ordinary girl. What are you called?"

"My name's Len Kagamine," Len answered for the third time that day. "I'm fourteen."

"Really?" Rin clapped her hands. "I am also fourteen! It is rare to see one my own age in this place!" She held out her hands. "Can you walk with me? I am rather bored with all the commotion about Mayu's wedding."

Len remembered Lola's words. He was supposed to do whatever one of the girls told him. But he still had about half a bucket of roses to fill. He glanced worriedly at the bucket sitting placidly in the grass.

Rin followed his gaze back to the bucket. "Ah. Oh yes, I forgot. Servants have work to do." She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "I apologize. Prima is always telling me I must be more conscientious to others." All of a sudden, there was a white blur and Rin was kneeling next to Len. "I know! I shall help you, and then you will get your work done, and I will not be bored!" She took the shears from Len's stunned hands and waved them about enthusiastically. "What shall I do with these?"

Len dodged the shears and shuffled backwards a little. "Miss...Rin. I don't think people would like it if you...um, got your dress dirty?" It wasn't the best excuse, but he really didn't think Lola would be pleased if she knew about Rin helping a servant this way. Besides, Rin was a danger to everyone as long as she was swinging those shears around.

Rin gave back the shears reluctantly. "I suppose so. This dress is new, of course. My sister Mayu would not like it if I arrived all splotched with grass stains." She looked around and sat on a large stone nearby. "Hmmm. Okay, Len Kagamine. How about I sit here, where it is safe, and talk to you?" She rested her chin on her hands. "I really am quite curious about your village."

Len shrugged. "I guess you can." He was startled as Rin suddenly perked up, her eyes once again blazing with excitement.

"Oh, good! I have so many questions I want to ask!" Rin took a deep breath. "So! What do people do in the village? Have you ever driven a cart? How does money work? Do you sell vegetables like the people in my books?" Len was pelted with questions, one after the other. He held up his free hand apologetically.

"Miss Rin, I can't answer so many at once!"

"Huh? Oh, I am sorry!" Rin's cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment. "It is just that I spend all day in the castle, and I am very curious about how others live. I will slow down. Sorry!"

"I-it's okay," Len was red too. Had he just made a noble girl apologize to him? And she was nicer than how she'd seemed back at the village, getting into everyone's business. He turned back to his rose bushes. "So, what do you want to ask me?"

Rin leaned forward on her rock and folded her hands together in her lap. "Well, first..." From the look on her face, Len knew he was getting into a long, long day.

Rin peppered Len with questions about everything from the way people dressed to how festivals were set up. As he picked roses and answered, he was surprised to find himself loosening up and even smiling. Rin wasn't the annoying, nosy girl that he'd thought she was. She was actually pretty fun to be with.

Eventually, Len's bucket was full or cream flowers, and had been for a while. The air had gotten chillier without the two noticing, and the sky was streaked with orange. Rin and Len were laughing together as Rin told him why her hair was so short.

"And then, it was so full of tree sap that they could not get it out, no matter what! So Prima said that they had no choice but to cut it off! She said it would teach me a lesson for climbing trees like a ragamuffin, but I told her that I did not make a very good lady either!" Rin flipped long, imaginary hair over her shoulder and lifted her nose haughtily, in imitation of her older sister. Then she and Len dissolved into laughter again.

A bell chimed from somewhere in the castle. "Lady Rin! Where are you, Lady Rin? It's time for you to get ready!" Someone with a torch moved along the garden path.

Rin sprang up from her rock and dusted off her white dress, which now had a few grass stains around its hem. "Oh no! I must go now, Len!" She dashed to the garden path a few feet away. "Thank you for keeping me company today! It was very enjoyable talking with you!" She waved energetically to Len and ran off in the direction of the torchlight, her arms pumping in a very unladylike way.

Len looked into his bucket, a little surprised that it was so full. In fact, it nearly overflowed. As the day wore on, he'd paid less and less attention to his work and more and more to Rin. He stood up and stretched. Picking up the bucket, he started to go back to the castle.

It was strange. Len found it difficult to talk casually with most people. Why was Rin so easy to be with? She was a noble girl, and should have been hard to get along with. Yet she and Len had talked and laughed together, and enjoyed each other's company until they forgot the passage of time around them. It was a new experience for Len, and felt very peculiar.

Len entered the castle and looked for Lola. The dark haired woman was directing servants to string up ribbon around the corridors. She threw up her hands in frustration as one tried to drape a brown ribbon over a stair rail.

"No, no, no! We're using cream ribbons! Cream! Not brown!" She saw Len standing awkwardly to the side and beckoned him over. "Len! Come here!" She took the bucket of roses and shook it at the other servant. "You see this? This, this is cream! That is not cream!" The servant bobbed her head up and down frantically and wound up the brown ribbon. Lola turned to Len, lips pursed. "What did you want? You're done with the roses, I suppose?"

"Yes," Len answered nervously. "Uh, what am I supposed to do now?"

"Go help with the decorations outside," Lola returned the bucket. "Use these for bouquets. I'm sorry about sending you out there again, but really, everyone else is busy." A crash sounded from somewhere down the hall, making them both flinch. Lola gasped. "Those fools! What did they do now?" She waved Len away and rigidly stalked towards the noise.

For the special day, an arch of cream roses had already been constructed. A team of servants was spreading white tablecloths over the tables. Others strung up lanterns from the trees and straightened rows of lacy white chairs. The only things missing were the flowers that would go in the empty white vases on every table. Len went from table to table, emptying out his bucket and trying to stay out of the way of the other servants. It went faster than he thought it would. In no time, he was standing with an empty bucket by his side, wishing that the evening air wasn't so cool.

"Good work," Lola said when Len came back to the castle. Because most of the preparations were finished, she had calmed down a little. "There's one more thing you have to do. Go knock on the girls' doors and see if they're ready. If they're not, tell them they have ten minutes." Lola pointed up a stairway carpeted with blue. "Their rooms are up there. They go from left to right: Prima, Mayu, and Rin. You can skip Mayu, she's with her maids. Rin can be a bit of a handful, so you'll have to be persistent with her. And don't forget- address the girls as 'Lady.' Even Rin. And bow if they come out."

Len knocked on the first door hesitantly. "Lady Prima?"

"Yes?" answered a low, female voice. "Is it time already for the wedding?"

"Um, almost, Lady Prima. There are ten minutes more."

"Ah, I see. In that case, I will go and see my sister downstairs."

Len jumped backwards as the door swung open. An elegant, dark haired young lady stepped into the hallway, her black skirts spilling out on the floor behind her. Len hurriedly bowed. Prima nodded to him and swept away, nose in the air. Len suddenly remembered Rin's impression and fought to prevent a burst of laughter from coming out. He swallowed hard and composed himself.

"L-lady Rin?" It sounded odd to Len. "The wedding is in ten minutes."

"No, I do not want to!" Rin called from inside her room. "You cannot make me, whoever you are!" There was a rustling of cloth. "I do not want to go and have to talk to a crowd of conceited cardboard!" Len heard a thump.

"Lady Rin? Are you all right?" Len called. Had she fallen off her bed or something?

The door opened sulkily and Len hastily bowed. When he straightened, Rin was standing in front of him, holding the pillow that she had thrown at the door. Her blue eyes widened.

"Len Kagamine! It was you?" Rin's cheeks were bright red. "I, I am sorry for throwing this at the door..."

"Don't worry about it, Lady Rin," Len replied. Why was she blushing so much?

"Why are you calling me 'Lady?'" Rin frowned. "It sounds like I am an old woman." She smoothed her messy hair self-consciously.

"I was told to call you Lady," Len said to Rin. "What should I call you, if you don't like that?"

"Just R-Rin," Rin tripped over her own name. Was she nervous about the wedding? She hadn't stuttered at all in the garden.

"I'll try, uh, Miss Rin," Len couldn't force himself to just say Rin's name. Although it would be nice, he thought suddenly, if he could be friends with her. Just two friends, without any social status to divide them.

Len shook off the thought. This time tomorrow, he'd be at home, in the village. By himself. Rin would only be a faraway, nosy noble girl again. Len realized that the thought didn't make him happy at all.

Rin smiled briefly and shut her door. "I guess I will go see my sisters, then. Will you be at the wedding, or are you going to return to the village?"

Len thought. It would be cold and lonely at home. He might be able to take a few leftovers if he stayed after the wedding, too. And he'd be able to be with Rin for a while longer.

"I think I'll be staying to help," Len answered. "I don't have anything else to do, after all."

Rin's face lit up. She clapped her hands together. "Good! I did want to talk with you a bit longer. The wedding guests are mostly old stuffy nobles and bratty children. It will be good to have a friend with me."

"A friend?" Len blinked. It was as if Rin was answering his thoughts. "Oh. Yeah, a friend!"

Rin bounced away down the stairs, leaving Len feeling like the sun had shone just for a moment. He found himself smiling, thinking of how good Rin looked in her white dress, with her smile and her laughing blue eyes.

This feeling was familiar. Len searched his memory as he stood blankly in front of Rin's door. Where had he felt this way before?

With a flush of heat, Len remembered. When he was younger, he'd fallen for a pretty village girl a year older than him. Of course, he was too shy to confess, and the girl's family had left the village long ago. But he still recalled how he'd felt, thinking about the way she walked, her long hair, and the sound of her voice.

So Len liked Rin. Rin, the annoying noble girl. Rin, who he'd only talked to that day. Rin, who bubbled with enthusiasm, and clapped her hands when she was excited, and didn't care about getting her hair cut off, and was curious about the villagers. Len leaned his forehead against the wall and groaned. Of all the girls in the world, why did he have to like the one who he couldn't have? There was no way they could be together. Besides, hadn't he been content with her just as a friend a moment ago?

"Hey, it's the squirt! Boy, what's wrong with you? You got a stomachache?" It was Dina, the servant woman from the morning, who whacked him on the back with a firm slap. "There! I always heard that was a great cure for stomachaches. Feeling better, now?"

"Ugh," Len straightened up and rubbed his back. "That's supposed to be for choking, not stomachaches. And I don't even have one. I'm fine. Ow."

"If you say so," Dina said. "Anyway, Lola sent me up to tell you. We're to take care of the guests and clean up after the wedding, so we get to watch! It's a rare opportunity to see a noble wedding, boy." She grinned and strolled towards the stairs. "Aren't you coming? If you want, I can smack you again."

Len ended up half squashed into a bush. Nearly the whole household had turned out to see the wedding, and since not all of the servants were necessary to assist the guests, the extras were free to find a place to watch, as long as they kept out of sight. Len was crammed into the bush because twenty servants had decided that this tiny spot, hidden by a hedge, was the best unobtrusive vantage point.

At least Len could see. And the night air, which should have been cold, was countered by the heat of twenty bodies all straining to catch a glimpse of the event.

The wedding was quite pretty. The handsome groom kissed the beautiful bride under an arch of cream colored roses as a crowd of assorted nobles sighed happily or dabbed at their eyes with handkerchiefs. Len's gaze was drawn to the vases on each table, filled with matching cream roses. He noted with displeasure that one of the nobles' children had taken a rose and was peeling the petals off.

He didn't envy the groom much. The bride, even though she was quite pretty, had a cold look in her eyes. She didn't look like someone easy to get along with.

As the happy couple walked arm in arm back down the aisle and servants began to serve the food, the pressure on Len eased as twenty people untangled themselves and dispersed. He pulled himself out of the bush and brushed off the leaves on his clothes. Now he had no duties. He wondered what he should do. Look for Rin? She was eating with the other guests. Len leaned forward to see if he could see her.

"Boo!"

Len spun around and fell flat on the grass. Rin smiled down at him. She cradled a fluffy, cream colored rabbit in her arms. It twitched its long ears and blinked lazily.

"It seems I am always surprising you," Rin laughed, reaching out to help Len up.

Len took her hand without thinking. It was warm and dry, and only a little smaller than his own. He felt warmth rushing into his cheeks. "I guess so. Um, what's the rabbit for?"

"This is Mimi!" Rin held out her new pet. "Mayu gave him to me, since she is going away tomorrow. Here, you may pet him. It is odd, though."

Len stroked the rabbit's soft cream fur. "What's odd?"

"Mayu usually does not like me very much." Rin posed, one hand on her hip. "I do not know why. Am I not the most amazing, wonderful person to ever grace this earth?" She giggled. "Let us sit on that bench there. We can be alone and enjoy each other's company without a pack of nobles munching away."

The two sat together on a cold stone bench, washed white by the moon. Rin was stroking Mimi's back and recounting embarrassing stories about the noble guests. She took Len's hand and bent over it.

"So he holds my hand and bows, like this, and he says that he is delighted to meet me. But he is next to that goat, and it leans forward and chomps his hat right off his head!" She let go of Len's hand. "He drops my hand like a hot potato and starts shouting at the goat! His mother turns purple and drags him away. And she is scolding him, and does not realize that I can hear the whole thing! She keeps saying that he only had one chance to court me, and he..." Rin leaned close and whispered the word into Len's ear. "He...it up!" She drew back. "I had never heard such language before! And from such an elegant lady! It was truly shocking!" Her eyes sparkled.

Len laughed with Rin, but he realized that he was in the same position as the unfortunate nobleman. He only had one chance, didn't he? He wouldn't see her again once he returned to the village.

Len decided to confess to Rin. Even if they never met again, he would at least know she knew his feelings.

"Rin, there's something I want you to know." Len's voice was serious, but a nervous smile was beginning to spread over his face.

"What?" Rin looked at him mischievously. "Is it something exciting? You have the silliest expression on your face!"

"Well, I just wanted to say-"

Mimi the rabbit chose that moment to wake up, spring out of Rin's arms, and scamper away.

"Mimi!" Rin was up in a flash. "Come on, Len, we must chase after her!" Len jerked to his feet and ran after Rin. Why did this have to happen now? But he supposed that he could confess to Rin when they caught Mimi. Still, the rabbit really had terrible timing.

Moonlit shrubs and trees flashed by. Len's feet pounded on the hard brown garden path. He was panting and falling behind. Rin seemed to have limitless energy. Len pushed himself to keep going. There was a wall of green and cream ahead.

Rin cornered the rabbit against a rock and scooped it up into her arms. Len jogged up to her and bent over, breathing hard. They had chased the furry animal for a while now.

Rin glanced around. "Why, look, Len! Mimi had led us to the place we first met!" She settled herself on the rock she had sat on that afternoon. "What a coincidence! So Len, what did you want to tell me?"

Len plucked a rose off a rosebush and sat next to Rin. "I like you." It was abrupt, and nothing like the flowery speeches he'd heard other boys recite, but he hoped Rin wouldn't mind. He handed the rose to her, folded his hands in his lap, and stared at his knees.

"What?" Rin sounded dazed.

"I like you."

"I..but...we have only known each other for a day!" Rin exclaimed. Len, dismayed but not surprised, looked up. Rin was grinning from ear to ear. "But, um, I think I...like...you...too..." As she finished, her voice trailed off and ended vaguely. She hunched over, focusing intensely on the rose in her hands. "This is the first real love confession I have ever had." She swallowed nervously.

The boy and the girl stared at each other. "So, what do we do now?" Len asked weakly.

"Well," Rin glanced everywhere except at Len. "In my books, I suppose we would, well, k-kiss."

"Should we?" Len and Rin were already drawing closer. Mimi shifted in Rin's arms, but she didn't notice.

Rin and Len looked into each other's eyes and kissed. It was a new experience for both of them. Len decided he liked it.

"We could do it again," Rin suggested, touching her lips. Len smiled. The two leaned towards each other again.

And that was when the ground opened under them.

* * *

><p><strong>Notes: <strong>So this is how they get to Wonderland. Len is kind of a quiet, awkward guy, isn't he? I think of him more like this then like a really strong, energetic person. For me, that's Rin.  
>Updates will be weird because I have finals coming up. Thanks for reading this story! I'll try to put up more chapters when I can.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Len had his arm around Rin's shoulders, and his eyes were closed. He'd heard that having one's eyes closed was more romantic, and it seemed to be working. He felt like he was flying.

Then Rin jerked sharply away from him and screamed. Len opened his eyes, startled.

"Huh?" Had someone found them together? But this was strange. It was nighttime, but it shouldn't be this dark. Len couldn't see the stars, or the rosebushes, or the rock he and Rin were sitting on. Wait, there were the stars. For some reason, he could only see a small circle of them. It was rapidly getting smaller and farther away. He looked down.

Len screamed. Below him was a gaping abyss. The walls were dark, squared off, and plunged downwards into darkness. Starting a little ways below Len's feet, torches blazed at random intervals, giving off an orange, flickering light. Len and Rin were plunging down into this bottomless hole.

Len had a mad urge to laugh. This was impossible. You only saw this kind of thing in fairytales. Maybe he had somehow fallen off the rock and hit his head, and this was all a dream. Yes, that must be it. This was so embarrassing. Rin would make so much fun of him when he woke up. Who fell over when they were kissing someone?

As the two fell like rocks, wind whistling all around, the first torch that passed flashed on the long, lacy white hem of Rin's dress.

Rin, hyperventilating, looked down at her burning dress with wide, terrified eyes, then back up at Len. "Len. Len, my dress is on fire." Her voice was full of wonder. "This is all a fantasy, a hallucination. I must have eaten something bad at the wedding. Right, Len?" She reached out with a trembling hand and touched the flames. Len didn't notice. He was busy staring intensely at the rough black walls, trying to wake himself up.

Rin shrieked and snapped her hand back. Len was dragged away from his contemplation of the walls. Even if this was only a dream-Rin, he had to help her, he thought. Maybe he could tell the real Rin about this later. It would make a great story. He took off his neat brown servant's jacket and tried to smother the flames. The fire only spread to one of the jacket's sleeves. Rin, panicking, thrashed around in terror. One of her hard black shoes connected sharply with Len's shin. It hurt.

It hurt. Dreams didn't have pain in them. That meant it wasn't a dream. Len was really, impossibly here, falling down an endless black shaft, with Rin. Rin! She was screaming and crying, and her dress was on fire!

Len started to panic. Rin was on fire. They were in a hole. There was nothing around to put out a fire with! He glanced around desperately. The only possibly helpful thing he could see was his jacket, which had a flaming sleeve. Oh, and there was Mimi the rabbit, who Rin had locked her good arm around, but it didn't seem very useful right now!

The jacket sleeve burned off and drifted away. Len gasped. "Rin! Rin, can you hear me? Listen to me!"

Rin wouldn't stop screaming and flailing around. Len caught her by the shoulder and shook her. "Rin, I need your help!" Hiccuping, she stared at him, shocked.

"Rin, we need to rip off your hem!" Len told Rin firmly, squeezing her shoulder. It was an expensive dress that wouldn't tear easily. Hopefully, since the burning part was lace, it would be more fragile. Unfortunately, it also burned faster.

Rin and Len took hold of the bit that wasn't burning yet. "On my count! One, two, three! Go!" Len pulled one way. Rin pulled the other. Len yanked as hard as he could. The scratchy white lace pressed sharply into his fingers. He could almost feel red dents forming. The flames edged closer and closer to his and Rin's fingertips. With a tiny sound, the lace tore open just a little. Encouraged, he and Rin strained even harder. The fire crackled and consumed a little more of the dress.

With a ripping noise, the whole strip of lace tore free, taking a chunk of browned cloth with it. Rin flung the flaming mess as far away as she could. Len dared to look down again and clutched Rin close to him.

"What..." Rin started.

"There are more torches. We have to be careful not to hit them!" Even as Len spoke, torches flew by. He and Rin fell together, suddenly silent as they realized how much of a narrow escape they had had.

Rin was the first to speak. "Len, my hand hurts." She raised it before her face to see it more clearly. "I did not notice it when I was pulling on my dress. I have never gotten hurt like this before. I had a free hand, Len. I could have dropped Mimi. I did not think of that." Len didn't know how to reply, so he only squeezed Rin more tightly.

"This is all real," Rin sounded like she was considering the idea for the first time. "I cannot believe it."

"Yeah," Len replied. "I don't know how, but it's real." The shaft was so deep that if not for the torches whipping by and the rushing sound in his ears, it would seem like he was hovering. He still couldn't see any ground.

"Are we going to fall forever? That is impossible, right? But then, this should be impossible too," Rin said. "Do you think we will be missed?"

"Maybe," Len answered. "I don't really know, but the lord'll probably send people to look for you. Maybe he'll post a reward. You are one of his daughters, after all." He was surprised when Rin chuckled, and not in a nice way.

"I would not really call myself a daughter," Rin said, gently settling her head on Len's shoulder. "You are aware of my purpose, are you not? To go off and marry a handsome prince, and live happily ever after. Oh, and to bring lots of money to 'Papa,' too." Her voice was soft and scornful. "I only see him once, on my birthday. If he wants me back, it would only be for my value."

Len, again, was at a loss for words. "But what about your sisters? Won't they miss you?" Although, they hadn't seemed like the warmest people when he saw them. But he'd only seen them once, and for a short time.

"Prima might. She is the one with dark hair. Did you see her?" Rin asked. Len nodded slowly, and she continued. "She is my oldest sister. We have talked before, but we are not very close. She is only concerned with her marriage. You see, she gets headaches, and she is worried no young man will want a frail wife. Everything she does is to make herself more desirable, to compensate. She cannot understand how I am content with myself." Rin rolled her eyes.

"But Mayu? She gave you Mimi, didn't she?" Len said. Mimi, nestled in the crook of Rin's good arm, had somehow fallen asleep. If Len could kill with a look, the bunny would be dead. If they hadn't had Mimi with them, Rin's hand wouldn't be burned. Actually, if they hadn't chased Mimi to the rock, they wouldn't even be here. But even if that rabbit was the cause of their unlucky situation, it was still a gift from Rin's sister. If Mayu cared enough to give a rabbit to Rin, that must show affection.

"Mayu does not like me," Rin shrugged. "I told you that, did I not? I was quite surprised that she gave me a present. She is what you might call the "jealous type." She is fine with Prima, who is not much competition, being too consumed with improving herself. I am someone who could take attention from her, though. She is focused on being Papa's favorite child. She even got married before Prima, the oldest. When she gave me Mimi, I was thinking that maybe, with her marriage, she would become more amiable, since she would be the first to succeed of the three of us." Rin sighed. "I have always wanted to be normal, like you. That is why I was always running down to the village. I thought it would make me like a villager. I have no wish to be a fairy-tale princess."

"I feel sorry for the person Mayu married." Len hadn't meant to say if aloud. It just slipped out of his mouth, and he was instantly mortified. Rin lifted her head from his shoulder, shocked.

"Len Kagamine! She is still my sister, you know! But," Rin began to giggle, "I do too. Did you see her face when they kissed?" Her giggles turned into full-blown laughter. "You could just tell she was thinking up some scheme!" Len joined in, remembering Mayu's cold grin against the groom's sloppy, lovestruck one.

Rin sobered up after a while. "And what about you, Len?" she inquired, smiling. "Who would miss you?"

Len thought to himself for a few seconds. "Huh. I'm actually not sure," he answered as his laughter died away. He'd never really considered this before. "There's the baker, of course. And maybe some of the kids. But I guess I'm kind of an outsider. The villagers might notice I was gone, but I doubt they'd care much." In the village, he was...it was hard to describe. He was the boy who lived in a tiny house on the edge of town. The kid who sold a few vegetables at the market. He was that person who you saw everywhere, doing random odd jobs like sweeping or delivering letters. He was a presence, but on the level of one of the stray cats that came to people's doors to be fed. No, the villagers wouldn't miss him much, if at all. He'd be lucky if his house wasn't taken over in his absence.

Len relayed this information to Rin in a matter-of-fact tone. Inside, he'd known it for a long time already. He was amazed that he was only realizing it now. He was dismayed as the playful light in Rin's eyes faded.

"I am sorry," Rin said. "I spoke about being normal, like you, as if your life was so much better than mine, but I suppose it must have been quite difficult. I had fine clothes and a horse, and many other things, too. Why should I play at being a commoner? I sound like a spoiled child, do I not?"

"No, it's fine," Len attempted to explain. "I honestly don't care. I mean, it's not like I liked them that much, either." The baker, and a few children, were the only villagers he ever really talked to, and the parents tried to keep their children away from him. They saw him as a bad example, which, considering his lifestyle, was quite reasonable. His relationship with the villagers was odd, and based mostly on mutual usefulness. They had him to call when they had something small to take care of that they were too busy to do or didn't feel like doing. In exchange, he got money.

"Well," Len tried to sound cheerful. It was hard. He wasn't a peppy kind of person. "If we're not missed by anyone, then we only have each other to worry about. I'll take care of you, and you take care of me. I'll follow you wherever you go."

Rin smiled hesitantly. "That sounded incredibly sappy, but I am happy to say that I would do the same for you too." She frowned, thoughtful. "But then we would both be going in circles, would we not?"

"Um," Len's face was heating up. "I guess so?" He couldn't believe he'd said such a thing. Those words belonged to someone else, someone who was handsome and romantic. He could only imagine how ridiculous they sounded like coming out of his mouth. An image suddenly popped into his head of himself, a skinny, short fourteen year old boy, trying to say something so silly to Rin. He wanted to go hide in a hole, but he was already in one.

Rin was looking down over his shoulder at the depths below. Her face was pale and tense. "Hey, Len. Look. It's not bottomless after all," she said quietly, chewing on her bottom lip. "What do you think? Will we survive if we hit that?"

Len peered downwards. Below his and Rin's feet, the hole still seemed endless, stretching on for infinity into darkness. He glimpsed something silvery gleam in the torchlight, just for a second. They kept plunging, and now Len could hear it: a crashing, hissing sound. The flickering flames revealed what appeared to be...

Water. A splashing, frothy pool of water, which streamed from a circular hole cut in the black wall. The water collected in the bottom of the shaft and swept away as a silver, churning river that flowed noisily down a wide tunnel going sideways through the wall. Len blinked. It seemed unreal. He and Rin had been falling for so long that he almost believed that they really would fall forever.

"If we hit the water from so high up, it will be like hitting stone!" Rin's eyes widened. "We will be flattened!"

Len's grip tightened as he realized the implications of what Rin had said. He didn't know if it was true. To him, it seemed that it would be safer dropping into water. But then, she was the one with a noble's education. He could barely read. If she said they would be flattened, they probably would. They were about to die.

"If we're going to die," Len wanted to make his last words good ones. "I'm glad that I met you, Rin." He waited for Rin's reply.

Rin didn't seem to be catching on. She was staring at the rapidly approaching pool of water. Len thought that she might be frozen in shock. He wondered if he should poke her or something.

Finally, she opened her mouth. "Len, there's something..." Len cocked his head quizzically.

"I just thought of it. How could someone put all those torches up?" Rin continued. Len, with a shock, looked up at the torches.

Someone had to put the torches on the walls. That someone surely couldn't enter from Rin's garden. There was only one way in: from the bottom, and from the end of the tunnel into which the water flowed. And now Len noticed, too, how perfectly even the walls were. Someone had to carve out a rectangle going into the depths of the earth. Why would they do that? Len had no idea. But that didn't matter right now.

Len's mind jumped back to the torches. They were too high up for anyone to reach. That meant there had to be some way of clinging to the wall in order to climb it. Unless...No, he wouldn't consider something like magic. Even though they were in a situation so impossible that there had to be magic. He scanned the walls rapidly, trying to discern a handhold, a protruding branch, anything he and Rin could save themselves with. He was wildly grasping at straws, but he wanted to think they had a chance.

Those were Len's desperate thoughts as he and Rin hurtled down towards the churning water. As the first misty spray wet his shoes, he gave up, took a deep gasping breath, and squeezed his eyes shut. If someone could do an impossible thing like putting all those torches up, maybe he and Rin could do the impossible and survive. It was a completely absurd and panic-fueled hope, he knew...

Their bodies hit the churning river with a tiny splash that barely registered among the roaring of the water. The current swirled around them and swept away, bearing them into the tunnel and towards whatever lay beyond it.

* * *

><p><strong>Note<strong>: I'm done with finals now, so I posted this. I'm trying to make longer chapters because there was a review saying the first one was too short.


	4. Chapter 4

The sun shone down, warm on Len's body. He lay peacefully on the ground, eyes closed, with his jacket clenched in his hand. The soil was dry and hard, and felt good against his was quiet, with the only noise being the rustling of grass in the wind. He sighed and relaxed. That had been a great nap, but he probably had to get up now. Lola must be waiting for those roses. Strangely, he didn't remember falling asleep, but he remembered every detail of the amazing dream he'd had.

Blinking sleepily, he struggled to sit up. There was something cold around his legs, but it didn't feel bad. It was cool and soft, like water. He looked, wondering what it was.

From the knees down, Len's legs were submerged in a clear blue pool, which had definitely not been in the rose garden. With a yelp, he shot to his feet and shuddered as his soaking wet pants clung soggily to his skin. He bent down to remove his boots and stockings, stuffing the stockings into the pocket of his ruined jacket. There. That felt a little better. He tied the jacket around his waist, substituting its end for the sleeve that had burned off. It didn't look very good, but it worked for the moment. Now, what had happened? Obviously, it hadn't just been a dream.

Len turned around, scanning his surroundings with trepidation. It seemed peaceful enough at the moment. If the situation had been different, Len might have been able to appreciate the beauty of the landscape more. This was the kind of place where people held picnics or painted pictures. Coarse grass grew ankle-deep for as far as he could see, interrupted occasionally by rocks and short trees. Mountains hovered, ghostly and blue, far off in the distance. But the most striking feature of this place was the flowers. All around Len, red and white flowers bloomed, the most vivid flowers he'd ever seen. He spun slowly on the spot, trying to take it all in.

There was a little heap of rocks nearby. Rin was sitting in their midst. She was sound asleep, leaning against the largest one. Mimi was still locked under her arm.

"Rin, wake up!" Len ran over to Rin, ignoring his unpleasantly clammy pants, and shook her shoulder. "Please wake up!"

Rin mumbled something incoherent and tried to get into a more comfortable position. Her eyelids flickered open.

"Ugh. I feel like I was sleeping on a rock." Rin said. "Oh. Hello, Len! You are awake!"

"Rin, we're alive! It was real! We survived! The fall, and the water, and..." Len babbled, words spilling out in a rush. "We're somewhere else now!"

"I was hoping it was a dream," Rin said. "When I woke up, I came here and thought I should wait for you, but the sun was so warm, and I, well, fell asleep again." Embarrassment flickered briefly across her face. "Anyway, we are lost and seem to be alone. What do you think we should do now?" She looked at Len expectantly.

"Huh? Um..." Len looked around. Nothing but red and white flowers, stretching off into the distance. "Maybe we should look around. There might be someone who could help us." He held out a hand to help Rin to her feet. She took it and winced.

"Oh yes. My right hand is burned," Rin said through clenched teeth.

"Here, I'll hold Mimi," Len suggested. With some difficulty, Rin loosened her grip, her left arm stiff after being in one position for so long. Len gathered up the fluffy little animal. Rin shook out her arm and got to her feet.

"Len, do you know how to treat a burn?"

He did, just a little. A boy who mostly took care of himself got burned occasionally, especially when he was learning how to cook. He led Rin to the pool of water that he'd woken up in.

"Here, soak your arm in it. It might make it feel better." Len told Rin, who knelt down and plunged her arm into the cool, clear water. "It's a good thing it isn't that bad."

"It is not?" Rin looked rather disappointed, for some reason. "But it hurts!" She peered at her arm, pale and wavering under the water's surface. "I have never gotten burned before, or even injured that badly. I thought it was quite serious. What should we do with it now?"

"I think we should bandage it, but there isn't much we can use for a bandage." Len said.

Rin reached behind her. "Here, use this." She untied the white sash around her waist and handed it to Len, who soaked it in the cold water and carefully wrapped it around the burn. Rin sighed. "It does feel better." She got up, examining her bandaged arm curiously. "Well then. We have taken care of the first thing. I think the next thing we should do should be exploring this place."

"What? We should?" Len asked. He looked around. "We don't even know what direction to go to. And there might be something dangerous we could run into." He didn't want to happily march off and end up eaten by a pack of wolves, or a lion, or any of those other dangerous animals he'd only heard stories about. Like dragons. Dragons could be possible, in this strange world they were in now. He started wondering what the odds were that this fairy-tale place had a dragon, and that they would stumble upon it.

"Len, come on!" Rin was already walking away, waving at him impatiently with her good arm. "You do not want to be left behind, do you?" Len suddenly decided that however bad dragons were, being left alone was far worse. He forced his boots on and hurried after Rin, carrying Mimi in one arm.

"Aren't you worried we'll meet something unpleasant?" Len asked when he caught up to Rin.

"Huh? Oh. I thought that it would be better if we met the unpleasant things, instead of them coming to us," Rin answered cheerfully. "And we might be able to find people who might help us." Len thought of spending the night at the pool, waiting for...unpleasant things, and shivered.

"Are you cold?" Rin inquired. Len shook his head and realized that it was actually quite warm. His pants were already drying out. That was interesting. At home, it had been summer, too. This new place seemed to be around the same time of year as their old one.

There was another thing that worried Len, though.

"What if we meet people and they aren't, well, very nice?" Len, who lived in a reasonably sized town, had of course listened to unlucky travelers' complaints about bandits and con men who were all too willing to take advantage of strangers. And as a boy on his own, he knew that not everyone was as friendly as they appeared to be.

Rin, however, had enjoyed the protection of the castle for all her life. The only place she had been to by herself was the town, where the people all knew her status and treated her with the respect and deference due to a noble. She answered immediately, "What do you mean? Not even Mayu would be so cruel as to turn away a pair of lost children. This kind of situation happens in my stories all the time. Wayward travelers like us are always treated well. It is simple hospitality, just like in the story of the Green Apple Girl." She clapped her hands together, eyes shining. "We are just like storybook heroes! All we have to do is find a kind housewife or farmer, and we will have a roof over our heads and a good meal in our bellies!"

The Green Apple Girl, Len remembered, was the brighter version of the Red Apple Girl. It had been invented by a protective mother who believed that the story of the Red Apple Girl, in which both the girl and her grandmother were eaten by a wolf, was too violent and dark for young children. In the story of the Green Apple Girl, the girl was helped by a friendly wolf who let her stay in his house on her way to her grandmother's. Len supposed that most of what Rin had been taught must have been similar to this. He was about to break the news to her that no, the Green Apple Girl wasn't a very good example of the world, but hesitated. It was something to hope for, after all, the promise of food and a soft bed at the end of the road. Rin seemed so sure of herself, too. He could tell her another time.

No. Len shook his head. That wasn't a good idea at all. What if, when they saw a house, Rin got excited and started running over to it? What if Rin was alone for some reason and met a stranger? He had to warn her now, before she did something she'd regret. He turned to her.

The sun, instead of being pleasantly warm, soon became tiresome. Len and Rin were tired and sweating, trudging step by step through the seemingly endless field of flowers. They could only mark their progress by the occasional tree or rock that they passed. There hadn't been any signs of habitation. There were no houses, livestock, or even any ruts to indicate that carts had been driven by. There were only flowers, rocks, and trees.

Their conversation had been at least an hour ago. Len had taught Rin about strangers. She'd been crestfallen. He wasn't sure how she felt now. He himself was too worn out to feel much of anything. They plodded on, step after step, crushing red and white flowers under their feet. It was too hot to waste energy by talking in more than monosyllables. Len guessed that it must be near noon.

His stomach felt empty. He glanced over at Rin. If he was hungry, she must be starving. He was used to going without much food, but she had never missed a meal before. Hopefully, they would find something soon. What that something might be, Len didn't know. He wouldn't even mind lizard right now, but it would be nice to have a bird or even a fish. That reminded him, maybe there were fish in the pool. Was it too late to turn back and check? He supposed so. Just the thought of backtracking all that way made him want to fall flat on his face and never get up again.

He squinted ahead. There, up on a little hill, was one of those bent trees. It looked pretty big. "Hey, Rin," he said, his voice heavy with fatigue. "I think we should take a rest under that tree there." She nodded, too tired to answer. She had run down to the village plenty of times, but she wasn't used to prolonged exercise like this.

They reached the tree and collapsed on the ground, grateful for the shade cast by the tree's wide, flat canopy of leaves. Len lay flat on his back, clutching Mimi to his chest. The rabbit was still, amazingly, asleep. Was that normal? It seemed weird for an animal like a rabbit to sleep through so much, and so long. It was convenient that Mimi wasn't giving them any trouble, though. Len decided not to think too hard about it. He wiped the weat from his forehead with the back of his other hand and closed his eyes, savoring the shade. Soon, he started to drift off a little. He was so tired, and it felt good to rest his aching legs...

"Hmmm." It was a female voice, but didn't sound exactly like Rin's.

"Rin, was that you?"

"No," Rin replied, an odd note in her voice. Len sat bolt upright, his drowsiness forgotten. If that wasn't Rin, who was it? Rin was sitting up too, eyes wide. He **followed** her gaze.

Barely ten feet away from them was a large, smooth rock, the top of which was flat and squared off. On either side of the stone were two stumps. And sitting on the two stumps were two young women, one in purple and one in were maybe a few years older than Rin and Len. They faced each other across the stone, focused on what looked like a red and white checkered cloth, on which were placed little figures. As Len stared incredulously, one of the girls picked up a figure and placed it on a different square.

Rin inched closer to Len and spoke in a near whisper. "Len, look at their clothes!" She giggled. "How scandalous!" Len switched his attention to what the girls were wearing. He gasped, his face red with embarrassment, and turned away as quickly as possible.

Those girls! What they had on...it was indecent! The one farther away from him was in the shortest dress Len had ever seen! The hem didn't even reach to the tops of the girl's purple stockings! And the other one, the red-haired one in the peculiar cat-eared hat, wasn't even wearing a skirt! She was wearing...pants! Not even ordinary pants like Len's- the girl was wearing pants that clung to her legs like gloves! Len gulped. It was beyond indecent!

Rin giggled again. "Len, you're redder than an apple." She patted him on the head affectionately. "Here, I'll go and see if they'll help me. Don't worry. If they're like those people you told me about, I'll run right back to you." Len heard the rustle of her skirt as she rose and approached the two girls. He felt like he should go with her, but he was too shocked by the strangers' sheer lewdness. Where he came from, a woman who even showed her ankles was considered promiscuous, and these girls were showing a lot more than just ankles.

"Um, excuse me," Rin began. "My friend and I are lost, and...Hello? Ah...Do you understand me? Bonjour? Hola?" Len didn't hear any response from the strange girls.

"Len, they are not answering me," Rin called. A slight tremor in her voice betrayed her uneasiness. "They are not acknowledging me at all."

"What do you mean?" Len got up and carefully maneuvered himself toward Rin, trying not to look at the strangers. Rin took hold of his shoulders and turned him to face them. "Look, Len." She leaned over and tapped the shoulder of the purple girl. Nothing happened. The purple girl simply stared pensively at the board and moved another one of the tiny statues. Rin shook her. Nothing. It was as if Rin wasn't even there.

"Len, you try."

Len steeled himself and poked the purple girl in the arm. He shook her, waved his hand in front of her eyes, and shouted at her. She didn't react to him either. He attempted to catch the attention of the red girl. The only thing she did was to move another figure.

"Do you think we should try to take away that cloth?" Len wondered. He checked to see if they could. No luck. The pattern was painted directly onto the stone. "Maybe the figures?" He tried to move one of the smaller ones, but somehow, it seemed stuck to the rock.

The purple girl picked up the piece Len had struggled with and moved it to another square, with no apparent effort.

"What the..." Len leaned over, trying to see if there was any mechanism sticking the figure down, but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Rin sighed. "Do you think they will help us if they finish their game?" She sat down again, not caring about the dust and dirt soiling her tattered white dress.

Len sat next to her. "They're playing a game? What game?" To him, the girls seemed to be simply moving things around. He'd supposed they were trying to make a pattern or something.

"It is called chess," Rin explained. "It is quite a popular pastime among nobles. The object of the game is to capture the other player's 'king.' That is that tall one there." She pointed. "The other pieces move in different ways. My favorite was always the queen, because she can move in any direction."

It sounded quite complicated to Len. "Are you good at it?"

"Pfft! No," Rin idly plucked a white flower from the ground. "I am quite terrible at chess. I always make reckless moves and my opponent easily defeats me." She tilted her head back, gazing up at the sky. "Mayu was quite good at it, though. You might be, too."

"Me? Why?"

"You always seem to be thinking about things." Rin twiddled the flower absentmindedly in her fingers. The petals fell off, one by one.

"Huh. Maybe," Len said. "But this chess game still sounds too complicated for me." He lay down on his back and crossed one leg over the other. "How long do you think it'll take?"

"Some of the games at home lasted for hours."

Len groaned. "We don't even know when they started playing! Can you tell how close they are to finishing?"

This time there was no reply. Len propped himself up on his elbow and glanced at Rin. "Rin? Uh, Rin? What are you doing?" She had gotten up and was turning away, looking at something he couldn't see. "Rin, what are you looking at?

Rin took a couple steps forward and suddenly tensed.

"Rin?"

"Mimi, come back!" Rin shouted suddenly, staring somewhere off in the distance. Len scrambled to his feet and checked his arm. Mimi was still there, twitching its cream-colored ears peacefully.

"Rin, what are you talking about? Mimi's right here!" Len caught Rin's good arm and tried to turn her around. "What are you doing?"

Rin roughly shook him off and started running. "Wait, Mimi!"

Len raced after her. He didn't know what was happening, and it scared him. He called out to Rin multiple times, with increasing desperation, but she only kept running. She didn't seem to feel the heat, or the prickly grass scratching her ankles. She wasn't even breathing hard, which was quite strange, considering how she was now running much faster than Len was.

Len began panting and staggering slightly. He pushed himself, but he couldn't help but slow down. How was Rin able to run so much without tiring? She spent most of her time in her castle! She was pretty energetic, but not this much!

They had run so far by now that if Len had looked back, the little chess game would have been only a few tiny lumps on a hill. Len had been forced to a jog, sweat streaming down his face.

Up ahead, the red blossoms mixed in with the white ones stopped growing, as suddenly as if a line had been drawn. Rin was crossing into a solid white field. Len barely had the energy to register how odd this was. He realized with joy only that Rin was slowing down, and forced a burst of speed out of his burning legs to catch up.

He was blocked by thin air. There wasn't any feeling of physical contact when he slammed into it. He just could not move any farther. He glanced quickly down at his feet. He was right at the line where the red flowers disappeared. He looked back at Rin. She had stopped running by now, and was walking towards a single straight tree, which appeared absurdly out of place next to the bent brown ones. White flowers were bunched in with its leaves. Rin stood in front of it for a moment, gazing up at the white blossoms.

"Rin?" Len called hopefully. "Are you okay now?" Rin stiffened, and Len pushed hard against the invisible wall. "Rin!"

Rin dreamily lifted a hand, placed it on the tree's pale bark, and vanished. The grass and flowers where she had been standing slowly sprang back into place.

"Rin!" Len screamed, his voice high and cracking. He pounded on the invisible wall and kicked it, but there wasn't even any pain to indicate that the wall was there. His fist and feet simply stopped moving when they were about to cross over to the white field. Len slammed himself into it a few times, knowing that it wouldn't work. He collapsed on the ground, ready to cry.

As tears came to his eyes, a loud, triumphant voice rang out over the flower field.

"Checkmate!"

* * *

><p><strong>Note<strong>: Sorry about the wait. My family went on vacation, and the internet there wasn't good at all.


	5. Chapter 5

"Checkmate!"

Len scrubbed a hand over his eyes and looked over to where the sound had come from. There on that hill where he and Rin had been, a little red figure bounced around, whooping. The chess game had finally ended.

Calming himself down, Len stood and considered the pale tree and the white field. He couldn't cross to it. He pressed his hand against the invisible wall, just to make sure.

He had only one option. He'd have to talk to those people on the hill and hope they felt generous enough to help him. He took one last regretful look at the white flower field and started to trudge back the way he'd come.

When he was halfway up the hill, Len realized that Mimi was finally waking up. The little animal began to twist violently around, squirming out of Len's arms. Len struggled, trying to keep it from escaping.

"Wait! Stop! Not you, too!" Len couldn't believe this new misfortune. Not only had Rin disappeared chasing an imaginary rabbit, but now her real pet was running away. Mimi dropped to the ground and scampered uphill.

Len plodded after Mimi. He'd been doing a lot of running around lately, and now he was too worn out to run any more. He crested the top of the hill and saw that the two strangers had finally moved. They were standing, putting the game pieces in two neat rows at opposite ends of the board. The rabbit scampered up to the strange purple girl and curled up at her feet.

"Huh?" the purple girl blinked. "Who are you?" She picked up Mimi and turned to her smiling companion. "Iroha, there's another rabbit." Her resigned tone told Len that apparently rabbits dropped into this place all the time.

"Seriously, how many have there been this week?" Iroha said, setting the final piece down with a little click. "You're like a rabbit magnet, Yukari."

Yukari sighed. "Can you take this one? I've got six now." She held out Mimi to Iroha, who licked her lips.

"It looks really plump and juicy. I bet it would taste great." Iroha reached out to take Mimi. Yukari yanked it back at once, a disgusted expression on her face.

"Iroha!"

"What? I am a cat, after all." Iroha flicked her long red ponytail over her shoulder. "And I won the game, so shouldn't I get some kind of prize?"

"Uh," Len interjected. "That's my friend's rabbit." He had decided that he was too drained to let any more strangeness disturb him.

The two girls flinched visibly at the sound of his voice. Len walked up to them.

"What the...Who are you and how did you get here?" Iroha asked, eyes wide.

"Looks like your little barrier wasn't as strong as you thought it was," Yukari muttered, stroking Mimi's fur. Iroha glared at her.

"I fell," Len said dully. "A hole opened up and my friend and I fell." He gestured vaguely at the sky.

Iroha gasped. "Huh? You're an outsider?" She turned to her friend. "It's impossible! He's a boy...right?" She returned her attention to Len. "Hey, are you a boy?"

Len nodded slowly. "Yes. Why?"

"Then your friend must be a girl," Yukari said.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Len asked. "And yes, she is."

"Oh! Then you must be a couple!" Iroha dragged out the last word with relish.

"I guess so," Len sat down on one of the chair-stumps. His stomach was beginning to remind him that he hadn't eaten anything since his time at Rin's castle.

"So!" Iroha said expectantly. "Where's your girlfriend?" She looked around, her hand shading her eyes.

Len sighed, wishing his head didn't feel so fuzzy. "She's gone. She just disappeared." He pointed in the direction of the white field. "Over there, where the red flowers stop growing. I came to see if you two could help me."

Yukari and Iroha looked at each other, than back at Len. Neither looked very happy.

Yukari raised her eyebrows. "Well, Iroha? I guess our vacation's over now?"

"What?" Len didn't know if he could take any more bad news.

"Uh," Iroha's bubbly tone was replaced by a sort of nervous half-giggle. "We're really sorry, but...You probably won't be seeing Alice anytime soon."

Yukari rolled her eyes. "You're going to give him the wrong idea."

"Who's Alice?" Len said, nonplussed. That name had come out of nowhere.

"Alice. You know, your girlfriend," Iroha replied cautiously.

"Her name's not Alice. It's Rin. And what do you mean, I won't see her anytime soon? Are you sure there isn't any way?"

For some reason, Iroha looked flabbergasted. "Rin? She's named Rin?" She whirled back to Yukari, who also looked surprised. "It's bad enough that the last girl was named Lily! At least that had an L! This doesn't fit with the tradition at all!"

"What are you talking about? What's wrong with her name?" Len asked. Nothing made sense anymore, but all he wanted to do was rest. He was feeling a little wobbly. That couldn't be very good.

Yukari looked at Len. "He doesn't look very good. Maybe we should explain the rules to him? Quickly?"

"We should, shouldn't we?" Iroha agreed. "Hey, what's your name again?"

"I'm Len," Len answered.

"Okay, Len!" Iroha plopped onto the other stump and crossed one leg over the other. "Listen carefully. This is going to take a while." She took a deep breath, clearly readying herself for a lecture. Yukari settled herself on the ground nearby and closed her eyes.

The hole, Len learned, had sucked him and Rin into another world. That he had already guessed. What he didn't know was the tradition of Alices.

Rin and Len weren't the first outsiders to stumble across this place. Fifty-two had come before them, all girls, and apparently all named Alice, except for the latest one. Eventually, though, they all had been able to return home.

The Alices generally came alone, although the latest one was an exception. She'd come in a pair, too. That had caused a lot of turmoil, since that had never happened before.

"She seems to be the exception to a lot of rules," Len commented, blinking away the fuzzy spots in his eyes. Iroha ignored him, absorbed in her lecture.

A red kingdom and a white kingdom divided the place between them. A magical barrier kept the borders impassable by nearly anyone not of the royal family. In addition to this, judging from the last pair of outsiders, each kingdom would only take one outsider. Rin had been sucked into the white kingdom.

"Does that mean..." Len began.

"You can't go into the white kingdom because there's already another outsider there." Yukari spoke up from the ground, her eyes still closed.

"But then, how am I going to find Rin?" Len asked.

"There's only one way!" Iroha answered. "You have to enter the red kingdom and be accepted by the royal family! Become a hero!"

"Um..." Len wondered if Iroha was serious or not. He glanced at Yukari, who seemed to be the slightly saner one.

She opened her eyes and nodded, warning, "But the chances of that happening are very low, and the last pair didn't find each other."

"How do I get to the red kingdom?" Len said quickly. He wasn't really understanding much, but he'd picked up on that bit of information.

"Are you sure?" Iroha cocked her head quizzically. "Once you leave here, you can't come back. If you stay, there's a small chance that the hole might open up again and let you go home. Plus, becoming a hero is pretty dangerous."

Len shook his head. "I don't want to leave Rin alone here." He stood up, swaying slightly. "How do I get to the red kingdom?"

"Hey," Iroha raised her eyebrows. "You seem pretty determined. That's cute." She smiled and gestured at the ground. "Just pick one of the red flowers."

"That's it?" Len replied. He remembered Rin picking a white flower just before she ran off. By this messed-up place's rules, she must have been choosing to go to the white kingdom. He bent down and, bracing himself, plucked one red flower. Nothing happened.

"Take the petals off," Yukari instructed. She stood up with a sigh. "Iroha, we're going home sooner than we thought."

Len picked off the silky red petals, one by one. They drifted down, some sticking to his clothes. Without hesitation, he ripped off the last one and felt a strange sensation. A rush of wind seemed to blow all around him, but no grass or flowers were disturbed. His hair and clothes rippling and flapping, Len looked towards Iroha and Yukari. They didn't seem to be affected by the wind at all. Iroha gave a little wave.

"What-" Len began. The world dissolved into a blur, colors suddenly melting and rushing towards him at high speed. He felt an unpleasant fluttering in his stomach and clutched it. He squeezed his eyes shut and hunched over, overwhelmed. The sound of wind built up until he was sure he was crouching in the middle of a tornado.

Then it all died away. The rushing noise and the horrible feeling in Len's stomach shut off as if someone had flipped a switch. Len waited, holding his breath. The silence, after all that chaos, was unnerving. Finally, he opened his eyes just a crack. Under his feet were pale, wooden, and reassuringly mundane boards. He stood up shakily and looked about. He was standing on the porch of a sturdy, comfortable-looking brick house. There was no trace of a stone covered with game pieces, or of a field of red and white flowers. His eyes widened. This must have been the effect of the red flower. It really was magic. It was one thing to know that one was in a magical world, and brought there with magic, but it was another thing to actually have a flower unleash the fury of a tornado on you. He hesitated, glancing around. Iroha and Yukari weren't anywhere nearby. He contemplated the door of the house. Should he knock? The flower must have sent him here for a reason.

A blast of wind behind him made him flinch involuntarily. He spun around and saw a whirl of color reform into the shapes of Iroha and Yukari. It made him a little dizzy, which didn't feel very good with his empty stomach and tired legs. He gulped. Without saying a word, Yukari brushed past him and walked up to the door. She withdrew a key from her black coat and opened the door. Iroha followed her into the house, adjusting her cat-eared hat, which had been knocked askew by the magic wind.

"Come in," Yukari told Len. "What are you waiting for?"

"But..."

"This is my house," Yukari said. "I'm letting you stay here. Just for a little while." She began to close the door. "Unless you don't want to?"

"No! Wait, I mean, no, I do want to," Len gratefully entered. "Thank you very much."

"Looks like you've got another lost rabbit, Yukari!" Iroha remarked from somewhere in the house.

"Don't remind me," Yukari rolled her eyes. She turned to Len. "Take off your shoes. I don't want that field dust on the floor. I'll let you have the guest room. It's upstairs, the second door on the left." She hesitated and took a breath. A brief smile crossed her solemn face. "Good luck becoming a hero." Immediately, the smile disappeared. Yukari, her face closed and unreadable again, turned away and retreated into her house.

"Um, okay," Len answered. He couldn't help but notice some emotion under Yukari's cold voice. Taking off his boots, he looked around what he could see of the strange building. It seemed normal enough, if not for the rabbit paraphernalia scattered everywhere. He went upstairs and headed for the second door on the left. The blanket on the bed was embroidered with a pattern of rabbits. He fell face first into it. It was much softer than his old bed at home.

There was a packet of paper on the nightstand. There were words on it. Len was grateful that his grandmother had taught him the basics of how to read. He didn't question at all why a newspaper from another world would be written in his own language.

"Huh. Secr-ets of the cat-er-pill-ar rev-ealed," Len sounded out with difficulty. "Int-er-view with the Oc-to-pus Wit-ch." He really needed to improve his reading, he thought. He should have listened to his grandmother more.

He flipped through the newspaper painfully slowly. The names and places were all unfamiliar, of course. He couldn't understand a lot of what the articles were about. He put it back on the nightstand and lay back on the bed. So this was going to be his life for now. He hoped to make the most of it. He promised himself that he'd find Rin, no matter what.

* * *

><p>Note: SAT's are coming up really soon, so updates are still spaced-out. Sorry.<p>

I feel like next one will be more of an explanation-type chapter.

I want to draw a new cover picture soon, too.


End file.
